Car-roof.



C. BROWN. I CAR Rom. APPLICATION FILED AUG- 9: I915.

1917. a Quins-snag? z.

v Patented. Mar. 13

@W w A @w @w R Q oooqoooo ooo'ooooo 0. BROWN! CAR ROOf. APPLICATION FILED AUG-9.1915- Patented Mar. 13, 191?.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

CHRISTY BROWN, 01? WILMETTE, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T AMERIUAN' GAR ROOF COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

I CAR-ROOF.

I To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHRIsTY BROWN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Wilmette, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Car-R0ofs, of which the following is a specification.

Heretofore, to compensate for or permit the unavoidable weaving, twisting and warping of railwaycar-bodies, without damage or injury to the sheet-metal roofs, it has been. customaryto make the roofs so-called flexible, that is, the parts thereof have been so associated with one another as to permit a certain amount of play or relative movement between them, such parts, however, being rigidly or unyieldingly fastened to the carbody' side and end walls. In some instances,

the roof elements have been unyieldingly se-' cured together, as by direct riveting, and rigidly fastened to the car-body, dependence being placed upon the inherentv flexibility oft-he roof members themselves to prevent itself is flexible or its parts fixedly secured to each other.

My invention, therefore, concerns improvements along this line, particularly in the way of attaching the roof to the body,

' and-also pertains to certain features of novelty and advantage in the roof structure itself.

In order that those skilled in the art may have a full understanding of the invention, 1 have illustrated a preferred embodiment of the same in the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, and to which reference should be had in connection with the following detailed description.

In these drawings, throughout the various views of which like reference characters refer to the same "parts,

Figure 1 is a f gmentary side elevation of a railway fre car, equipped with the improved form w.

Fig. 2 is a central, longitudinal, vertical Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Mar, 13, 191'}, Application filed August 9, 1915. Serial No. 44,433.

section, through the structure shown in' Fig. 1.

Fig.3 is a fragmentary, end view of the construction illustrated in Fig.1.

Fig. 4: is a partial, vertical cross-section through'the upper portion of the car-body and roof. 7

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one of the braces or brackets which secures the ends of the car-lines to the car-body side walls.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary, vertical section through the roof, between carlines.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary section, showing the parts in Fig. 6, and at right angles to the view of Fig. 6'; and i Fig. 8 is a partial, vertical cross-section, throughthe' center of one of the carlines and its associated cap strip.

'Referring to the drawings, it will be ob-- served that the car-body has the usual side and end walls 10 and 11, respectively, the former being provided with posts 12 and at. its top having a longitudinal Z-bar 13, with an inwardly extended-flange 14, a vertical web 15, and a lower, outwardly projecting flange 16. The end wall also has its posts 17 capped with a Z-bar end plate 18, having an inwardly extended top flange 19 and an outwardly projecting bottom flange v20.-

The roof frame may or-may nothave a ridge-pole, butin the particular embodiment of the invention presented in these drawings no such pole is used. A suitable number hf cambered, channel ,oarlines 21 are used, these being spaced apart the desired distance and each having projecting from the opposite edges ofits trough-shaped portion the out standing flanges 22, 22. As is clearlyillustrated, these carlines are disposed with their troughs upwardly, and at each end each has fastened thereto a pressed, sheet-metal brace or bracket 23, illustrated in perspective in Fig. 5. Each. of these brackets comprises a base-plate portion 24 having at its outer edge a marginal, depending flange .25, an upwardly bent trough shaped portion 26 projecting inwardly, as shown in the various figures. Tlr is part 26 is provided with ta pered side wings 27, merging into apertured portionof thecarlin'e being snugly received in the depression or socket 26, its flanges resting on flanges 28, as shown. In this way, the carline has one of its braces or brackets flanges 28, which, by means of 'iivets 29", are

fastened to the carline flanges 22, the body] than. the width of the holes 29, so that these braces and theircarlincs and the car-body side walls are free to shift relatively to one another, with a capability of movement lengthwise ofthe car greater than that crosswise of the car-body. To permit this possibility of relative movement, the parts 24 of braces project beyond the webs of the Z-bars 13, as is clearly illustrated in Fig. 6, so that the flange 25 is spaced outwardly away from the outer face of such web.

As isshown inFig. 6, the ends 31 of the carlines 21, including their outstanding flanges, are curved or bent downwardly beyond their association with the channels 26 of the brackets.

Positioned between such downwardly curved ends of the carlines and the top faces of the parts 24 of the brackets, and eX- tended the full length of the car, I employ save or weather strips 32 of general Z-shape in cross-section, and secured to the protruding portions of the brackets by rivets 33 re ceived in suitably spaced holes through the web of the cave strip and in holes 34 of the brackets. v

As indicated in Fig. 6, the web of the care strip rests directly on the top faces of the brackets, with its outer, depending flange against the outer faces of such brackets, its inner, inclined flange being readily accommodated between the carlines and braces,

as shown.

Between adjacent carlincs, and with their end portions bearing against the side Walls of such carlines and accommodated beneath the curved carline flanges, l employ wooden filler strips of the shape in cross-section shown in Fig. 6, which are interposed between the end portions of the. carlines and the cave strip, as illustrated.

The curved, sheet-metal roof-plates 36 extend transversely across the car from side wall to side wall and. extend lengthwise of the car-body from carline to carline, the opposite edges of such plates having downturned flan es 37, accommodated in the troughs of t' e carlines and bearing against the inner faces of the side walls of such oarlines, as indicated .in Fig. 7 As the sides of the car, these roof-plates, including their flanges 27, are bent or curved downwardly to follow the contour ofthe corresponding intense parts of the carlines, the roof plates terminating, as is shown in Fig. 6, at the top of the cave strip 32 and flush with the outer face of the depending flange of the latter.

Channel cap' or weather strips 38 are employed and lit snugly in the channels of the carlines, holding the roof-plate flanges 37 firmly between their side walls and the walls .of thecarlines. As is clearly illustrated in bolts 41. extended through holes insuch ears and apertures 42 of the bracket flanges 25. Each of these holes 42 preferably has'a side opening 43, so that the bolt may be slidin sidewise, as will be readily understood. In order that whatever moisture might possibly find access to the trough of the carline may be readily discharged over the cave or weather strip 32, the web 44 of the cap strip at each end is apertured, or cut away, at 45 for the drainage indicated. I j

. At the ends of the car, the last roof-plate 46 has one edge accommodated in the adjacent carline in the manner depicted 1n Fig. 7. This plate rests upon the cambered or bent flange 19 of the end Z-bar or plate 18, and projects beyond the web of such bar in a downwardly curved portion 47, having a marginal flange 48 secured to the Web of the part 18 by a number of bolts 49, which pass through holes in the Web and through substantially horizontally-disposed, elongated slots 50 in the flange 48.

The bolt and slot connections 30, 29, of the braces or brackets to the Z-bars 13 permit the roof as a whole to shift lengthwise of the car-body, the curved or bent port-ions 47 of the end plates yielding suliiciently to permit such movement, that is the parts 47 will become distorted, more or less.- The roof is also free to move sidewise of the car-body by reason of the connections 30, 29, and the end connections 49, 50. It will be apparent that the roof as a whole constitutes a unit, loosely or yieldingly connected to the car-body proper, that is-to say, all of the elements of the roof are unyieldingly fastened together and depend upon the adjustment of the braces and of the end roof-plates for securing it to the car-body side and end walls.

In case any portion of the car-body tends to settle or become depressed more than any other portion, the roof can readily accom modate itself to such distortions by reason of the resiliency and iiexibilityof the roofplates themselves; that is to say, idep'end ence is placed upon the yielding capability of the plates, rather than upon relative movements of the elements constituting the roof structure.

While 1 have herein illustrated, in de-' tail, and described somewhat minutely one particular embodiment of this invention, it is to be understood that the invention isnot limited or restricted to the precise and exact structural features presented, because 7 car-body, a car-roof including cal-lines,

sheet-metal roof-plates, and carline braces Copies of this patent may be obtained for substantially rigidly connected together without capability of substantial bodily movement relatively "to one another, and loose connections between said carline braces and car body permitting movement of the roof relative to the car-b0dy,substant1a1ly as described.

2; A structure as specified in claim 1 in combination with cal-line cap-strips rigidly connectedto said braces, substantially as described.

which the braces are slotted incombination with bolts ,accommodated in said slots and securing the braces to the car-body, such slots and bolts permitting the movement specified between the roof and car-body, substantially as described. 1

V- 2 'CHRISTY BROWN. Witness: WALTER M. FULLER.

five cents each, by addressing the commissioner of Ietents, Washington, D. 0."

3, A structure as 'specified in claim 2 in 

